Dublin Masonic School.

DUBLIN MASONIC SCHOOL .

AT the Masonic Female Orphan School , on the 1 st inst ., a magnificent stained glass window , which consists of five divisions , was formally presented by the donors to the Governors of the School . The window , which is in the main hall , has been designed and executed by Mr . Clarke , of North Frederick Street , on whose skill and workmanship it reflects the highest credit .

The first part , presented by Victoria Lodge , No . 4 , is a graceful and elaborately finished picture of the Queen ; the second , which is the gift of St . Patrick ' s Lodge and Chapter , No . 50 , bears a figure of the National Saint ; the third , which is intended to commemorate the Centenary celebration of the Institution held from the 17 th to the 21 st May 1892 , shows two female orphans

joining arms to unite in the school ' s solidarity and uninterrupted progress through the long intervening period of a century ; the fourth , the gift of St . Cecilia Lodge , No . 250 , is in memory of Bro . Frederick E . Pirn LL . D ., P . M . S . G . D . Secretary from 1882 to 1892 ; and the fifth , which is the gift of the University Preceptory and Chapter and Trinity College Lodge , shows a picture of Queen Elizabeth .

The Governors breakfasted together in the school at 8 . 30 , and . subsequently they adjourned to the main hall of the building , where their monthly meeting was held . Mr . William Fry jun ., President of the Incorporated Law Society , occupied the chair .

Eepresentatives of the various -Lodges which erected the window then formally asked the Chairman ' s acceptance of their gifts , on behalf of the Institution . Lord Justice Fitzgibbon , who was received with applause , said he had the privilege of asking the acceptance by the school of the centre window of the five , on the part of the committee

that had the management of the celebration that took place in 1892 . The pattern that they saw on the window was certainly well-known in its day , and they wished to have it perpetuated here . And before he said anything particularly about it , perhaps their kindness would allow him to make something in the nature of a report , and to say something also about a few other matters connected with the school . Besides these five

windows they had already a centre window erected in memory of two departed Brethren—Brother Black , one of the most generous supporters of this school and of the other charities connected with the Order ; and Brother Fitzgerald , to whose unfailing courage and indomitable energy they owed not only the building of this school , but the building of the Boys Sckool .

This window , which was now presented to-day , and of which they had all heard so much , was an interesting piece of Masonic symbolism . They could learn from it , as from very many other Bources , what the Order really was . Loyalty was typified by the Queen , and the Victorian age by Queen Victoria , and the Preceptory and Chapter of Trinity College had , he thought ,

fairly typified learning in Queen Elizabeth . They then had patriotism and piety in St . Patrick , and they had harmony in St . Cecilia . All these elements went together to make up the greatnesss of their Order ^ and to establish its claim to every consideration as a worthy and a good institution ; and he thought that they gathered well round the two centre figures

which represented a hundred years of Masonic charity . But this was not mere ornament . The girl of 1792 had , through the education which she had received here , taken her part as an independent member of society , having won her place in the Civil Service of the Crown . The girl of 1892 was their pupil teacher , who was soon to leave them to go into the great world

outside , and they hoped that these two figures would stand there for 100 years until the girl of 1992 would make her appearance . What this latter girl would be like they could not tell—some form , he presumed , of noiseless motor—but they could challenge the future to look back on what had been done in the past hundred years , and to go one better if it could . Now , what had been done as a result of the efforts made in 1892 ? In the

first place , they accomplished their great object of rounding the number of the school and assembling within these walls the full one hundred pupils . They completed this school by the erection of additional buildings , including the hall in which this gathering was now assembled , and a library that opened off it , and nobody who was acquainted with the work of the school

could for a moment suppose that there had been anything done , handsome as the work was , that might be called waste of their money in mere ornament . The working of the school was never , in his experience , promoted by any addition more effective than the erection of this hall . Before this hall was brought into existence there was no single room in which the

girls could all gather together , no room in which all the Brethren could come together and show their interest in the Institution as they had done this morning in such large numbers , no room in which to conduct an examination , and no place where on Wednesdays they could ask their friends to come and see the school represented , as it should be , in a good and noble

Dublin Masonic School.

apartment . These things were an expenditure in bricks and mortar , but they represented only a small part of what had been done . In the year 1892 they appealed to the Brethren to assist in a celebration , the outcome of which would enable them to make some provision for giving the girls a start when they left this school , and as the result of that appeal a sum of money

was invested which rendered £ 500 a year , so that the Governors were now in a position to do something very considerable for each and every child that left them , and he would say that there was no money more beneficially laid out than this sum , which when the school had done its part , enabled the children to complete their education and their qualifications , and which

defrayed the expenses necessary to give them an independent start in life . Some of the children went abroad , some went to business , some were enabled to join their friends in different parts of the world , and to some they gave a more extensive education to enable them to follow up particular walks in life ;

but no matter what they did , they could truthfully say that their work was blessed in its return , because they looked back proudly on the record of those who had gone from them , and they were pleased with the gratitude which was constantly expressed by the girls for the results and the benefits given in this school . All this work that had been done now was in the

nature of what he dalled capital expenditure . The school had to be maintained as a matter of love and duty by the members of the Masonic Order . It was an Institution that depended entirely for its permanence and maintenance on the many handed body that erected it . They had no rich endowment . They had no endowment except the richest of all endowments—the love and duty of the Masonic Order . They had , he was glad to say ,

a record in the election that would be announced that day . They had had many girls in the school from time to time who had received oyer 3 , 000 votes . They thought it an extraordinary thing when 3 , 300 votes were given for the granddaughter of a gentleman who had long been an Officer of this Institution , but to-day the girl who stood at the head of the list went within twenty votes of 4 , 000 . They would see by reference to the list , that case , in which there were added to che votes recorded the

number of 240 because the father was a life Governor and an annual Governor of the School , but if you took away the 240 you found the popular voice recorded at 3 , 828 votes for the friendless daughter of a man who was drowned in June last , and left two motherless children , both of whom had been elected at

the present election . When it was considered that girls came here from every county in Ireland and also from the Colonies , and the great field of Masonry all over the world , he trusted that the inauguration of the memorial window would be typical of the permanence of the Institution , a permanence founded on beneficence , and that beneficence founded on their generosity .

Bro . William Fry said that on the part of the Governors he accepted the gifts presented to the school by the several Lodges . This was the anniversary of the birthday of the wife of the Grand Master of England , the Prince of Wales , and therefore it was an extremely interesting occasion on which to present this window to the School . He also wished to mention that in

honour of the proceedings of to-day , Lodge No . 4 had given them a flag . The windows were all executed in Dublin by Mr . Clarke , and he was sure they were a high testimony to Dublin art . — " Irish Times . "

There are members of the English Grand Lodge of Freemasons who feel strongly that the event of the longest reign in English history should be suitably celebrated by members of the Craft of which the eldest son of the Sovereign is Grand Master ; and it is quite possible , says the " Daily News , " that a great Masonic service of rejoicing may be arranged . No more suitable centre than St . Paul ' s could be named for such a

gathering . Should the suggestion commend itself to those in authority , the necessary permission for the Brethren to appear in clothing in public would be readily granted , and the assembly would be as brilliant and varied in colouring as it would be enormous and representative of a world-wide Craft .

"A Sprig Of Acacia."

" A SPRIG OF ACACIA . "

THE remains of the late Bro . John Eawsthorne , who died at Lingdale Eoad-, Claughton , were interred at Kirkby Church , near Liverpool , on Wednesday , 9 th inst . The deceased was well-known and greatly respected in the city , and was a well-known Mason . The Craft was represented by Bros . Sam

Fraser P . M . P . G . S . of W ., H . Williams and W . Davidson 2463 , Neils Christensen W . M . 1393 , H . W . Bradshaw 1325 , J . N . Cliffe 182 , J . B . Jeffrey 823 , M'Garred 220 , William Johnson , Thomas Quinlan , Percy Bullock-Keates , J . H . Lloyd , and many others .